


The Little Girl Who Understood

by heart_full_of_magic



Category: Mary Poppins (Movies)
Genre: Family, Fluff, Gen, Kids, Love, Mary being a good nanny, Sad Ending, cuteness, idk why i wrote this, loving, slight angst maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22141336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heart_full_of_magic/pseuds/heart_full_of_magic
Summary: Mary Poppins has taken care of many children throughout her life, but there is always one girl that she will carry with her forever.
Relationships: Mary Poppins & OC
Kudos: 9





	The Little Girl Who Understood

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not exactly sure why i wrote this, but i like to look at it as a melancholy sort of celebration of life. hope you enjoy <3

"Are you leaving, Miss Mary Poppins?"

The small voice, soft and a little tired-sounding, came from the top of the stairs. In the pale light that flickered, thanks to a small oil lamp being the only light source, a woman looked up from the bottom of the stairs.

She wore a black overcoat, over a midnight-blue dress. In her hand she held an umbrella with the head of a parrot as a handle, and a carpet bag in the other. Her shoes, small heeled boots, were placed in a practically perfect position on the wooden floor. Brilliant blue eyes glittered in the soft light. The face of Mary Poppins looked into the eyes of 6-year-old Abigail Terrason.

"Yes, I am, dear." Mary replied simply. Leaving was never the best part of her career as a nanny, but it was not the worst... usually. For some reason, with this family, Mary didn't seem to want to leave. But the winds were ever-changing, and Mary moved and changed with them.

"Why?" The short, brown-haired girl asked. Abigail had a mane of light brown, almost blonde hair that was untamable to most. But when Mary Poppins had come around, she had easily smoothed and soothed her hair into gentle braids, where they lay now. The girl had eyes of a brilliant brown, and they were now turned up curiously to her magical nanny.

"The winds have changed." She repeated the sentence so often, Mary Poppins was auto-tuned to answer like that. But, it seemed, Abigail could not take that as an answer.

"But can't you just stay?" She asked innocently, looking down at her nanny with a confused frown. Suddenly, not a second after her words were spoken, an enlightening passed over her face. "You're just like him!" She said. Her tone had changed. Now it was quieter, but still excited and even more filled with wonder. 

For once, Mary Poppins's eyebrows furrowed. She was confused.

"Like...Like whom, dear?" She asked the child, slowly setting her carpet bag down. She clasped one hand around her closed umbrella, turning more towards Abigail.

"Once, before you came to my house, a man appeared. It was nighttime, so Mummy and Papa didn't see him. Neither did Olivia." Olivia, Abigail's older sister at 10 years old, was still fast asleep upstairs. "But I did. He came down from the sky, with an umbrella like yours. "And he sat by my window and told me stories until I fell asleep. I had nightmares, you see." Abigail spoke politely, but couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice. Mary just stared at her, at a loss for words. Another like her? A man, but with the same powers she had? Why hadn't she ever been told about this?

"He told me that the winds carried him wherever they wanted him to go." The 6 year old continued. And then, when I woke up, he was gone. It was like...like magic! Like what you can do." Abigail wasn't a stranger to Mary Poppins's magic - she had seen it multiple times before.

Mary was quiet for a moment, processing the information. She had followed the winds for a long time, yes, but they had never really explained anything else to her other than where her duties lay. Moving around, always helping new children and fixing families. But the thought that other people may be just like her inspired something in her. It was a feeling Mary couldn't comprehend, at all. A feeling completely new to her.

"Thank you, Abigail. Thank you for telling me." Mary said at last, and the smiling girl rolled her eyes. Mary allowed it just this once, still overcoming her shock. Abigail slowly walked down the stairs, and suddenly her smile dropped. Now she stared at Mary sternly, and the woman was so surprised, she looked right back.

"No." Abigail said, her tone quiet and sounding truthful. "Thank you, Miss Mary Poppins. Without you, we would be a mess. And so would many other people and families. You're a very big help, to all of us. So please, don't thank me. Thank you." Mary stared at the girl in front of her. She felt small tears forming in her eyes, but forced them down. She had been touched by this little girl's words, short as they were.

"I have taken care of many children before, Miss Abigail..." Mary smiled widely, straightening once again from where she was bending over to look at Abigail's eyes. "But you, I will remember for a long time." With a wink, Mary Poppins had picked up her carpet bag, tightened her grip around her umbrella once more, and walked out the door. Abigail stared after her for a moment, smiling widely, then quietly and quickly ran upstairs to her room.

Climbing upon her bed, she looked out the window, where she had a perfect view of the night sky and the brilliant, shining moon. Squinting, she thought she made out a lone figure, floating in the air. Mary Poppins, lifted by the wind and holding her parrot umbrella. Abigail let out a giggle- Mary Poppins was most certainly an odd woman, of that there was no doubt. But even she, a six year old, knew that she would return when she was needed. As soon as the wind changed.

For Mary Poppins never left her charges alone. Once she had visited a home, they always remembered her to their dying day. She affected the lives of so many people in so many different ways. Little Abigail Terrason was proof of that.

Over the next 20 years, little Abigail Terrason moved on and became a nurse. Now, at 26, she was fighting daily to save the lives of many wounded soldiers who came in from the battles raging on in the world. Just when the day had ended, just when they thought they were all safe, a bomb was exploded. Abigail was amongst the ones fatally wounded.

But she survived.

The doctors claimed it was a medical miracle. But Abigail knew better. For she remembered, as everything around her started fading to black, she remembered seeing the piercing blue eyes of only one Mary Poppins. And in that moment, she knew she would be alright. And she was. Now grown-up Abigail moved on to marry a wealthy man, and had two beautiful children.

She never did see Mary Poppins again. But she hoped dearly, with all her heart, that her old nanny was content. Because only God knows, the woman deserved happiness and so much more.

On her dying day, the day in which she knew she would not live to see the sun set again, little Abigail Terrason looked out into the night sky as an old, wrinkled woman. She smiled her customary smile, her short brownish-blonde hair still in the neat little braid Mary Poppins had done and taught her to do so many years ago. And in the distance, barely visible, she was sure she could see the small outline of a woman in a dark dress, slowly floating down with the wind as she gripped a parrot-head umbrella in one hand and a carpet bag in the other.

"Thank you, Miss Mary Poppins."

Little Abigail Terrason closed her eyes, and opened them no more.


End file.
